Councillors reject green field house plan

Will Cook

Councillors have rejected an application for 34 new homes on a greenfield site in Salterforth.

Pendle Council’s West Craven Committee turned down the outline application on a triangular piece of land off Earby Road next to the Northolme estate.

The application was for the creation of a new access, with access and siting for determination only at this stage.

Councillors rejected the plans on grounds that there was inadequate pedestrian access and that Salterforth had already taken more housing than the 10% requirement for rural settlements mentioned in the Core Strategy.

However, because there was a significant risk of costs going against the council, the application will now have to be considered at the next Development Management Committee meeting on July 25th.

Coun. Rosemary Carroll said: “We rejected it and one of the biggest concerns was flooding, all the water is going to come down into Earby. It’s outside the settlement boundary and Salterforth has got enough, it’s got more than its fair share.”

The rejection of the application comes after Committee Chairman Coun. Mike Goulthorp raised concerns in June that a trio of green field sites in Earby, Aspen Grove, Bailey Street and Red Lion Street, were considered for potential sale to a developer for housing at a meeting of Pendle Council’s Executive.

However, the Executive agreed to not progress with the sale of any of the land in Earby.

Ahead of the meeting, Coun. Goulthorp said: “Earby is still recovering from the worst floods in many years, the last thing we need is another large housing development.

“Everyone, including Pendle Council, should be focussed on sorting out the flooding issues before we even think about building more houses.”

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